August 2011
1 post
“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is...”
– Jack Layton, 1950-2011. R.I.P.
October 2009
12 posts
Some lesser-known collective nouns
fuiru:
A borstal of youths
An arson of herring
A blank stare of pedants
A Chardonnay of buried children
An eek of Jonas Brothers
A Bengleck of murderers
A chipolata of confused tourists
A load of made-up collective nouns
A Sween of Twitterers
A gumption of Celine Dion fans who are mad that their favourite singer had to cancel a gig in their city because of a sore throat
A pigshit of...
“We marry expecting someone else to make us happy, instead of making our own...”
– Cathy Meyer, “Why Is The Divorce Rate So High?”, About.com
Only took them 367 years.
“Only in 2000 did the Holy See apologise for putting Galileo on trial in 1633, forcing him to recant his ideas lest he face imprisonment or worse. The Vatican also paid tribute to him in an exhibition that opened this month.”
AP: Paradigm shift: How Galileo’s spy glass upended science
“Do we dare insult the oozing tubes of melted cheese that pass for burritos in...”
– Jonathan Gold
“Of course, if you keep telling yourself there’s something to be learned...”
– Haruki Murakami
Notes on an Amtrak trip, 10/21/2009
A car failure 75 miles away from home has forced me to take the Amtrak for the first time. We speed past cornfields touched by the setting sun, that give way to the long grasses of the wetlands. A duck drags its feet in the water as it takes to the air, leaving a trail behind it. We pull a little closer to Suisun Bay, where I see those large, aging ships stationed there - the same ships I see...